Locals & Belongers preferred is good policy - N. Wheatley
“It’s not because we don’t want to be fair to anybody else,” Wheatley said on the Umoja show aired on September 5, 2013. He added that this did not mean Virgin Islanders or Belongers hated other nationalities or were xenophobic. “It’s just a practical law [and] practical method that happens all over the world.”
He argued that there were people, primarily from Europe and North America who have gone all over the world and have been exploiting people’s labour markets and natural resources.
“They’ve spread an ideology called globalisation and even our own people have accepted it, that your nationality shouldn’t matter anymore and whatever group you belong to shouldn’t matter anymore,” Mr Wheatley stated.
According to the commenator, these things were not practical, “just because people want to go around the world looking for work for themselves doesn’t meant that I don’t deserve work in my own homeland or I don’t deserve opportunities in my own homeland.”
He stated that he was of the belief that there are ways for persons to function that would allow everybody in the world to get work for themselves and be able to feed their families.
“I don’t think that’s going to happen through this ideology of globalisation as we see it, where people are going around competing with you and they don’t want any boundaries or restrictions to them coming and competing against you,” Wheatley stated, “I favour cooperation more than I favour competition.”
He argued that if there was a greater degree of cooperation and resource utilisation within the Caribbean region, people would not have to move around because they were being starved at home.
According to Mr Wheatley, “We have a great amount of resources here in the Caribbean that we could develop and if we did something that was practical as opposed to getting all our products from North America or China or wherever else, and we started to develop some products for ourselves… it would ensure that we have some work.”
19 Responses to “Locals & Belongers preferred is good policy - N. Wheatley”
What is needed is a better understanding of how experience and education lead to progression in the work place, rather than an attititude, of I'm born here therefore I'm entitled.
The advert reappears in the paper except the requirements have now changed asking for a level unheard of in the caribbean. This was tailored to the exact candidate they found in the UK.
This happens time and again and all the adverts in the papers are as "job" says just for the labour office forms.
BUT let us not forget we brought this development of our islands on ourselves. And we benefit from globalization every day - we love big cars, TV, fancy drinks and nightclubs and cash opportunities that jump out at us. We lap it up. Years ago this place was quiet, quiet. Nothin much happening here, you know. People moving by walking or donkey or rowing or sail between the islands. Now we jammin hard.
So let's not be foolish and make like all this is pure exploitation. This is what we worked for all through those years of development - for the world to come to us.
Now it is here, we must be protected against drowning, but not angry and full of hate like so many of us become. Of course them outsiders want the best man or woman for the job. That's how jobs work, how businesses survive. If they turning BVIslanders down who qualify they need to go in front of Labor. But we too need to make sure are the best, not just expect the big chair because we come from. We need to strive for excellence, not whine like so.
LOCALS & BELONGERS PREFERRED is just a written policy but they never implement it. Look at scrub